W. Harrison Moore was Professor of Law at the Melbourne University from 1892 until his retirement in 1927. In constitutional law he was influenced by A. V. Dicey.

This text is the first edition of this work and is as much a history of the federal movement as a commentary on the Australian federal constitution. It ranks with that other classic, "Quick and Garran" (The annotated constitution of the Australian Commonwealth).

A second edition was published in 1910 and it was that edition which was reprinted in 1997 with an introduction by the eminent Constitutional scholar, Professor George Winterton.

This first edition will be of interest to legal historians.